To shop owners or owners of spare air tanks

[Attreui]

A crutch for having little or no situational awareness and a tendency to wander off and leave your dive buddy, while sculling your arms about wildly and trying to take pictures of marine life with your go-pro on a selfie stick until you suck your tank dry and shoot to the surface, having not once looked at your SPG."

That might not be true in your particular case, but that's what I'm thinking when I see the bottle bouncing on your belly as we wander to the back of the dive boat.

I have a pretty good idea of how long my air will last with a runaway regulator, torn hose etc, and I know how far away I can be from my buddy or another diver if I suffer a catastrophic failure, so I endeavor to wander no further than I can fin without panicking. I check my SPG regularly and have a mental estimate of how much gas I have, in my head without looking. This is my piece of mind.

I was thinking of an actual course not an outfit who teaches OW divers with 12 dives to dive a wing and doubles but I didn't specify that so touche'.

The quote you pasted is nonsense. Most newbie divers I've worked with spend more time looking at their SPG then they do at the reef, we train them to watch it. It takes longer to develop bad habits. As long as you know it's use and just as importantly it's limitations, there is no safety gear that is useless. Anything that can save your life or just as importantly reduce stress underwater is worth it. That's like saying "I have perfect navigation and will always surface where I plan to so Im not going to carry an SMB or a whistle". Under your thinking as long as long as you think you can estimate how much air you will have and how close you are to your buddy there is no reason for anyone to carry an alternate air source for emergencies. I'm glad you have a good idea how much time you will have before going OOA if your 1st stage blows or a hose tears. I'd prefer not to bet my life on that, or gamble it on getting to a buddy (some that I may have just met on a boat) notwithstanding current or any other factors. So I'll keep my little spare air on my back when I do those types of dives that I carry it (I don't like things bouncing on my belly).

And I wouldn't judge divers' skill on what they may be carrying on a recreational fun dive. You may be surprised.

 

[BRT]

BRT, I think you missed the point. How do you hold it while ascending in an emergency? If in left hand, how do you run your inflator? If in your right hand, and computer is on right wrist, how do you read it?

You really need to think about this BEFORE you need it, and not blow off questions about it. You might even help someone else who has not thought about it either..

You probably need to try one. What hand do you hold your reg with?

 

[Attreui]

BRT, I think you missed the point. How do you hold it while ascending in an emergency? If in left hand, how do you run your inflator? If in your right hand, and computer is on right wrist, how do you read it?

You really need to think about this BEFORE you need it, and not blow off questions about it. You might even help someone else who has not thought about it either..

You're correct. People should practice with it, and think about how they will use any device they have. I hold it with my left hand and use my right shoulder dump. Works fairly well. Although I will say that if you have to let it go it will stay in your mouth underwater. Not too comfy on the teeth though.

 

[tursiops]

You probably need to try one. What hand do you hold your reg with?

I don't hold my reg.

 

[BRT]

I don't hold my reg.

And you certainly would not have to hold a Spare Air while you were controlling buoyancy.

 

[tursiops]

And you certainly would not have to hold a Spare Air while you were controlling buoyancy.

So I assume you have practiced an ascent while holding the Spare Air in your teeth? or is this theoretical?

 

[BRT]

I have practiced with my unit in my teeth. Not too much different than a regulator. The bottle pulls but the hose doesn't. This isn't rocket science.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Now, to your example. A guy's packing for a live-aboard trip. Plans to do some solo diving. Boat he'll be using doesn't offer pony rentals, & he's to fly in & taxi direct to the boat & get on, not drive around town looking for pony rentals. He's packing his 2 suitcases...and that 13 cf pony with full-sized regulator just looks kind big & heavy, compared to a 3 cf Spare Air. Will he take it?

I have a simple solution for that problem, one I've employed numerous times. I take a travel sling, (effectively rather than a Steel band it has a webbing cam lock) and my regs. On the Liveaboard or the resort, I politely ask for an additional AL80 and sling it. Generally they don't have smaller tanks and this solves all the problems. Never been charged more for gas, and never been refused. Slinging an AL 80 is no more difficult than any other cylinder. At most I put 2lbs on the opposite side to balance it out

 

[2airishuman]

I have practiced with my unit in my teeth. Not too much different than a regulator. The bottle pulls but the hose doesn't. This isn't rocket science.

Well, good for you.

It is my experience, in diving as well as other pursuits, that emergencies rarely go as well as planned for. I find, as do many, that people react the way they have been trained in emergencies. Therefore it is with a sense of particular purpose that I approach training for and practice of emergency procedures.

Though you don't quite come right out and say it, it sounds like you've practiced a complete ascent on your Spare Air from a depth where that can be accomplished safely, probably no more than 60 feet. Were you able to measure the amount of air remaining at that point? Did you in fact complete the ascent while holding the cylinder assembly only with your teeth?

I'll probably never use a Spare Air simply because my emergency gas planning always includes a one-minute problem-solving time at depth, a three minute safety stop, a one minute surface reserve, and an ascent within the limits baked into the algorithm my dive computer uses. That's enough gas to turn a life-threatening emergency into a mere story, and it still fits into a small package that's easy to carry.

 

[lowviz]

I've suffered through countless S/A threads over the years. I don't really know why I do this, just some fascination with strongly held opinions. I don't really care either way what someone else does or likes. But something just dawned on me in this thread. One's view of S/A appears to be determined by whether or not one is a self-admitted solo diver.

A buddy diver probably sees S/A as a "belt and suspenders" thing. I'm already safe, now I'm even safer.

A solo diver or a "loose" buddy diver sees absolutely no value in S/A as there is a simple way to eliminate all the problems with S/A. A real pony. I use a 19 cuft that also has a Schrader valve hose on it for either my suit or wing. It is just peace of mind because in my reality "Who ya gonna call?"